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Dreamers are a vital force in society. They are the visionaries of their time. When all others are blind, dreamers are the ones granted to see the handwriting on the wall, to interpret the signs of the times, and to see the light beyond the tunnel. Equipped as they are with superior perception, dreamers analyze the situation on the ground in the light of the common good and of the true goal of the human person and the society. Dreamers possess the vision of life as it ought to be, and with this vision they give the much needed hope to a suffering people.

 

Dreamers often proclaim the inevitability of nemesis. They constantly warn the men and women of society of the impending doom if they do not change their course. They are also constantly pointing to the direction where society is supposed to be heading. Dreamers refuse to be defiled by the corruption of the moment or be engulfed by the darkness of the surrounding environment. As prophets they are endowed with rare courage not only to denounce evil in general, but also to name the specific human agents of evil in society. They remind society that peace is the fruit of justice, and warn evil doers of the inevitability of nemesis. Dreamers give reason to hope. They assure "the remnant,"  who hunger and thirst for righteousness, that all is not lost.

 

In an environment such as ours, there is very little room for the dreamer. In a land of greed and graft, of lies and subterfuge, there is hardly any place for the dreamer. In a country where lawlessness is the norm and corruption has acquired the status of a virtue, the dreamer is something of an eccentric. Amidst a harvest of debauchery, and widespread apathy and despondency, the dreamer is a an object of scorn. And in a generation that is almost fully surrendered to the mundane, where progress is defined only along the parameters of the moment, the dreamer is considered a non-entity.

 

Yet the dreamer is essential for the very survival of human society. Humanity owes its continued existence to generations of dreamers who slept over the triumph of conquerors and napped over the humiliation of the vanquished. The human species would have been wiped off the face of the earth, but for the dreamers who constantly gazed beyond to seek the stars, as their fellow wayfarers submerged themselves in the fleeting pleasures of the day. Biblical literature gives the examples of Noah, Joseph, John the Baptist and Jesus Christ. And down through the centuries, there have been dreamers who tread the path of these pioneers. Humanity has never understood its dreamers, for they always dreamt dreams that were "unrealistic" for their contemporaries. Their dreams of love and brotherhood, and of justice and peace, when not aborted, were often stillborn. Yet many have continued to conceive dreams, and it is their dreams that have held us together to this day.

 

One such dreamer was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the African American Civil Rights leader and Nobel Prize winner. The greatest legacy of Dr. King is perhaps the famous speech delivered at the Lincoln Memorial, Washington D.C., on August 26, 1963, titled: "I have a dream." He  says in part: "I say to you today even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream...I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed...I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted and every hill and mountain shall be made low. The rough places will be made straight...we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope...we shall be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood...we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together...to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day."

 

Martin Luther King was not deluded. His dream might have sounded unrealistic at the time, but it was not an empty dream. It was a dream based on faith. Martin Luther King's dream was based on a strong faith in the fundamental equality of all men and women before God. His dream was based on faith in the fact that the just shall overcome someday. It was based on the belief that all appearances to the contrary notwithstanding, light conquers darkness, and truth overcomes falsehood.

 

Nigeria today perishes for lack of knowledge. As a people, Nigerians are groaning under the weight of collective myopia. There is an acute shortage of vision, intellectual rigour and critical thinking even in academic circles. What appears to be in place is the cult of mediocrity, whereby professors of political science for whom democracy is an article of faith, legal luminaries who hold the title of "Senior Advocate of Nigeria," and who have sworn to defend the rule of law, and highly respected religious prelates, who are expected to hold truth as sacred, now bow before ruthless feudal lords and callous military despots. Many of those whom Nigerians look up to for a sense of direction, have become sycophants, praise singers and propagandists for the oppressors of the Nigerian people. Their action is a serious betrayal of their education and the mission they owe to succeeding generations of Nigerians.

 

In the face of this national embarrassment, Nigeria is in dire need of dreamers, seers and visionaries, who will liberate our people from bondage, and open the way for justice, peace, and abundant life. Our people have never in history witnessed this degree of impoverishment, oppression, enslavement and betrayal. That is why we need citizens endowed with the wisdom of the sage, equipped with the vision of the prophet, and propelled by the passion of the true nationalist, to make a powerful intervention now on behalf of the distressed people of our land. We need patriotic but fearless Nigerians who will demonstrate to the men and women of this land that (in the words of Chinua Achebe in The Trouble With Nigeria) "a true patriot is one who cares deeply about the happiness and well-being of his country and all its people; not one who says he loves his country... A true patriot will always demand the highest standards of his country and accept nothing but the best for and from his people. He will be outspoken in condemnation of their shortcomings without giving way to superiority, despair or cynicism."

 

Our land has not been altogether bereft of dreamers. Like other nations, Nigeria has been blessed with a few. But their dreams have often been broken by multiple distractions. The faint voices of Nigerian dreamers have had to contend with the vicious demons of oppression and military dictatorship. Through the course of the years, Nigerian dreamers have been presented with too many challenges. Right now the challenges are such that their very capacity to dream dreams has been stretched to near-breaking point by incessant harassment and detention. Yet the country must learn to tolerate the dreamer and his dreams, if we are not to be totally consumed by the plague of collective myopia.

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